Science has finally confirmed it: Testosterone, the male hormone linked to aggression, plays a major role in risky trading on the Market floor. Another hormone, cortisol, has traders acting bearishly. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

(Newser)
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The buying and selling of the world's wealth is at the mercy of aggressive men and their hormonal fluctuations, neuroscientists have discovered. While that doesn't come as a big surprise, the study isolates the major role that testosterone plays in making boorish traders exceptionally bullish—and the part the hormone cortisol plays in slumps, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Researchers found that high testosterone levels, particularly in the morning, corresponded to exaggerated risk-taking. "If testosterone reaches physiological limits it can turn risk-taking into a form of addiction," said one scientist. "A better way to lower extreme levels of testosterone on a trading floor is to hire more older men and more women."